Pathy Tshindele belongs to a new generation of Congolese artists who have gained increasing recognition in Kinshasa over the last five years. Despite having studied at the Académie des Beaux-Arts (ABA) in Kinshasa, Tshindele expressed his desire to ‘unlearn’ all that he was taught in order to develop an unconventional way of working. In 2003, along with his friends from the Eza Possibles collective, Tshindele initiated the ‘Kinshasa Wenze Wenze’, an event that involved producing sculptural works from recovered wrecked cars found across the city as a way of addressing the deteriorating state of the city, and the difficulties faced by its inhabitants.

Tshindele’s canvases are heavily attributed to language, to expressions within the Kin language, and in wider reference to what he refers to as the unwritten, ‘made up from day to day’. His canvas depictions present synecdoches for a citizenship of the world, in direct response to the monolithic oppression of race, nationality or gender. International exhibitions include JAPANCONGO at the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture in Moscow, Russia (2011), and Kin-Babi at Galerie Cécile Fakhoury in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire (2013).